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Monday, July 5, 2010

I hope everybody had a great fourth of July. We sure did! The weather was beautiful so we ran errands in the morning and went over to our good friends, BJ & Ashley’s in the afternoon.

Little Man is a bit out of sorts. I think he is suffering from allergies- runny nose, red, watery eyes. The only reason I’m thinking allergies is because he doesn’t seem to have a cough associated with it. So for now, I’m giving him some Benadryl and will give it a couple days.

We bought Ben a fun sprinkler toy to set up in BJ and Ashley’s backyard. We were so excited to finally try it.

Ben had the best time running around the yard in his diaper, dancing to the music and playing with their two dogs.

One day, when we own a home, we are going to get a dog. Ben had the best time just chasing them around and getting excited whenever they came near him.

Our family picture, fourth of July 2010

Our family photo, fourth of July 2009. We have celebrated fourth of July with BJ and Ash, the last three years.

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Fourth of July will always hold a special place in my heart. It was exactly two years ago, I had my “last hoorah”. After three days filled with beer bonging, inner tubing and wakeboarding, I realized I hadn’t yet gotten my period.

It was two years ago, I was sitting on my bathroom floor, staring at a digital home pregnancy test, waiting for the blinking hourglass to turn.

It was exactly two years ago when that little blinking hourglass turned into the word pregnant.

It was exactly two years ago that I closed one door and opened another. And I haven't looked back once.

2 comments:

Hi! Saw your blog link on another blog that you commented on and thought I would introduce myself. I'm a fellow CF mom. My little guy Bryce (24 mo) was diagnosed at 3 weeks. Like you...total shock to our family as there was no family history. Looking forward to keeping up with your family.

Our Greatest Joy

Our first and only child, Ben is 100% pure boy. He loves anything train, truck or car. You can usually find him pushing Thomas on his tracks or running a matchbox car up the sofa. He goes by the name of Ben, Benjamin, Manny, B, Little Man and many more. Ben may have CF but it will never define who he is. It's only a small part of him. He will grow up knowing he can be anything he wants. He is a little boy who is loved by all who meet him.

Our Family

The Author

I am a wife to Ryan and Mom to Benjamin and couldn't be happier. Benjamin was born March 11, 2009. Ben was prenatally diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis after blood test revealed Ryan and I were carriers. With absolutely no family history of the disease it was a huge shock to us and our friends and family. Despite having surgery at less then 48-hours-old to repair his small intestines, we have been lucky with his health. I created this blog to help keep friends and family up-to-date on what we are doing. My hope is that Ben will look back on it one day and see how much we love him.
Welcome to our life!! It's pretty amazing :)
For more info on Cystic Fibrosis please visit: www.cff.org

What is Cystic Fibrosis?

Cystic Fibrosis is a life threatening, inherited disease, that causes mucus to build up and clog some of the organs in the body. Majorly in the lungs and pancreas. When the mucus clogs the lungs it makes breathing very difficult. The thick mucus also causes bacteria/germs to get trapped in the airways, which causes inflammations and infections that damage the lungs.
The mucus can also block the digestive tract and pancreas. It stops the enzymes from getting into the intestines. The body needs enzymes to break down food, which provides important nutrients to help us grow and stay healthy. People with cystic fibrosis often need to replace these enzymes with capsules they take with their meals and snacks to help digest the food and get the proper nutrition.

How do people get CF?

Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disease. Which means people inherit it from their parents through genes (or DNA), which also determine a lot of other characteristics including height, hair color and eye color. Genes, found in the nucleus of all the body’s cells, control cell function by serving as the blueprint for the production of proteins.
The defective gene that is responsible for causing cystic fibrosis is on chromosome 7. To have cystic fibrosis, a person must inherit two copies of the defective CF gene.one copy from each parent. If both parents are carriers of the CF gene (i.e., they each have one copy of the defective gene), their child will have a 25% chance of inheriting both defective copies and having cystic fibrosis, a 50% chance of inheriting one defective copy and being a carrier, and a 25% chance of not having CF or carrying the gene.

What is the life expectancy for people who have CF?

There is no way to accurately predict how long people with cystic fibrosis will live, as many different factors may affect a persons health. Severity of disease and time of diagnosis are two such factors. Many people have a mild case of CF, while others can have moderate or severe cases. In addition, some adults with cystic fibrosis have only recently begun to use new treatments, while an infant diagnosed at birth will have the advantages of starting specialized treatments that were not available even a decade ago. Improved treatment and management of Cystic Fibrosis now results in a much longer life expectancy. Since the 1960’s, average life expectancy has risen from 5 up to just over 37 years